31 August 2010

-- JERUSALEM (AP) -- Palestinian gunmen opened fire Tuesday on an Israeli car in the West Bank and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Mideast peace talks in Washington. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility.

One of the victims was pregnant, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

The withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq's urban centers just over a year ago was welcomed euphorically. Fireworks lit up the sky, honking motorcades drove through the streets and men danced with joy.

No one expects much dancing in the streets of Baghdad this Wednesday. The streets are deserted these days.

Last week, at least 56 Iraqis died at the hands of suicide bombers and snipers in around two dozen terrorist attacks.

Faisal Shahabuddin, a member of the mosque's board when asked to explain how two members of the congregation had allegedly gotten themselves involved in the terror plot, stated, "Why should I explain if we don't know it's true?"

His refusal to whip his caucus, as Michael Ignatieff has done with the Liberals, virtually assures the motion will fail and Bill C-391, which was introduced by Tory MP Candice Hoeppner to end the long-gun registry, will succeed.

Gotta confess, I didn't think ol' Jacko had it in him.

Of course, the decision isn't entirely based on principle... the NDP stood to lose a whack of rural MPs.

Charlie Angus, a New Democrat from Northern Ontario, has voted in favour of Ms. Hoeppner’s bill – and he is no fan of the gun registry.

He tells the story of an 84-year-old widow who wanted to register her dead husband’s firearm and was told she would first have to get a licence, after taking a course in how to use it, even though she never planned to fire the weapon.

Barry, who lives in a Victoria Park Ave. building, watched as officers approached a man who had come off the No. 24 bus. Barry said police cars had the bus boxed in front and back.

Barry said the man would not drop a knife he had in his hand, then police shot him three times. He described the victim as brown or black, stocky and 5-foot-7 and with a red tattoo on his upper right arm.

Barry said he thought the shooting was justified. “That police officer did his job,” he said.

Of course, to balance out any statement supporting the police... the Star also has to get the obligatory outrageous soundbite from an enthusiastic, but anonymous bystander who swears ol' Reyal was very publicly executed...

Another witness, who did not wish to be identified, said she heard the incident take place behind her apartment, and rushed outside when she heard police scream, “Get on the ground!”

She said three shots rang out after police shouted another warning to a man running off a Victoria Park bus. The woman, who saw the incident unfold, described how the man hit the ground and was shot two more times when he was told to put his hands on his head.

“The cops shot him five times, I’m 1,000 per cent positive on that,” she said.

I hope her memory is better than her math skills.

And, of course... you can always count on CBC to toss a little cop-bashing hearsay into the mix...

Jason Brown and his girlfriend live in a building minutes away from where the shooting happened. He said she saw the whole thing unfold.

"She was in the alleyway in front of the guy and the cops shot the guy once. He dropped on the ground. The next partner came and gave three more to the guy," Brown said.

Yeah, sure... they were taking turns... because, for cops, murder is just a game.

It sounds like the same mysterious witness above... but now it's four shots, not five.

29 August 2010

The real joke here is... they all like to say that Ignatieff is... "the smart one"...

On the final day of his cross-country tour, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff thundered over a quip Prime Minister Stephen Harper made at the end of an ATV joyride last week in the Arctic.

Harper, in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., on Thursday raced up and down an airport runway on a borrowed all-terrain vehicle. One reporter asked him if he needed a licence and he replied, “I think I make the rules.”

The Liberals are now working that event into Ignatieff’s stump speech.

No personality AND no sense of humour.

I think it's time for an oil, lube & filter.

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IGGYMANIA UPDATE: Come back Stephane...

...all is forgiven...

Michael Ignatieff's summer-long, cross-country bus tour has given a modest boost to Liberal fortunes but done little to improve the Opposition Leader's popularity, a new poll suggests.

However, 54 per cent of respondents still registered an unfavourable view of Mr. Ignatieff, compared to only 29 per cent who had a positive view of the leader.

28 August 2010

-- TORONTO -- The stench of this deal hits one’s nostrils from miles away because every part of the purchase of the circa 1899 Harris House heritage home at 450 Pape Ave. to create subsidized rental work and living spaces for artists stinks to high heaven.

Despite staff originally not recommending it, and saying there was no money for it, council in a suspect-move decided to go ahead and borrow from another department’s budget about $2.2-million — $1.9-million of which is to purchase the Salvation Army property, once known as Bethany Home for pregnant teenagers, at the corner of Pape and Riverdale and an additional $275,000 for closing costs.

They are making it up as they go — at your expense.

It looks like a sweet deal for so-called artists who don’t seem to want to survive on the market economy like the rest of us have to. Others who want to live in this neighbourhood have to come up with $600,000.

-- (Reuters) -- The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy.

-- NEW YORK -- Omar Khadr’s defence faces an uphill battle when his trial resumes, now that the prosecution appears to havedemolished the theory that a particular battlefield photo disproves the charge of murder against the Canadian-born terror suspect.

26 August 2010

Mounties seized 50 electronic circuit boards during raids on Wednesday which they say could be used as remote-control triggers for bombs. Police also say one of the men was trained overseas to make explosive booby traps.

Hiva Alizadeh, 30, appeared in an Ottawa court today following police raids and arrests on Wednesday. Mr. Alizadeh is charged with terror conspiracy, having terrorist explosive devices, and terrorist fundraising.

Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, an Ottawa X-ray technician, and Khurram Syed Sher, 28, of London and a medical graduate from Montreal's McGill University, are charged with being part of a terrorist conspiracy.

Police allege all three conspired with an additional three named individuals to “knowingly facilitate terrorist activities” -- named yesterday as James Lara, Rizgar Alizadeh and Zakaria Mamosta -- and other persons at home and “in Iran, Afghanistan, Dubai and Pakistan”.

Mr. Alizadeh is also charged with making or having “an explosive substance” with the intent to endanger life or cause serious damage to property.

-- TORONTO -- Four men were shot Wednesday night in a gun fight in the city’s inner north-west, less than two kilometres from the site of another gun battle that injured a man earlier this summer.

Reports of the incident stated that one group of young men had approached another at the townhouse complex, then shots rang out. But police spokeswoman Constable Isabelle Cotton could not confirm those details on Thursday morning.

“I don’t know if it’s gang related,” she said.

Yeah... maybe a dozen guys were just cleaning their guns... out there on the stoop.

What exactly was your last assignment, Isabelle... patrolling Sesame Street?

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POSTSCRIPT: Don't miss the Globe comments

"Thank God for the gun registry. They should catch the shooters in NO time."

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FUZZY-BUNNY JUSTICE SYSTEM UPDATE:

Two men convicted of manslaughter in the fatal Boxing Day shooting of 15-year-old Jane Creba were sentenced today to 12 years in prison. But, with a credit of eight years and five months, Louis Woodcock, 23, and Tyshaun Barnett, 22, will only serve three years and seven months.

No wonder these dickhead thugs aren't afraid of "the system."

Those Conservative Party tough on crime measures can't be implemented soon enough for me.

Prominent members of Ottawa’s Muslim community will meet with a team that specializes in defusing police-community tensions to allay fears and explain why the RCMP arrested two men suspected of planning a terrorist attack on Canada.

Uh, you guys are aware that we kinda frown on that whole "bloody jihad" deal, right?

Of course, Ms. Faraqui speaks for all of us Canadians when she asks the big questions...

Ferruk Faraqui, a member of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, and a board member of the Ottawa Muslim Women’s Organization, said, "You can only wait and hope that when the details emerge, that the arrests were justified.”

Maybe I have lower expectations, Ferruk... I'm just happy this story doesn't involve mass casualties.

Salma Siddiqui, the Muslim Canadian Congress's vice-president commended the RCMP. “But we hope that the accused will be tried with due process, the presumption of innocence, and with full guarantees that their constitutional rights will be protected.”

25 August 2010

“I am from Scarborough-Rouge River,” Scarborough Councillor Raymond Cho said. “We have a lot of natural areas. So many properties are right up against the forest. They are invaded by snakes and snails."

Wright said what’s happening in Toronto and across Ontario isn’t a Conservative revolution. Rather, it’s a revolt against the status quo, with voters feeling those in charge of Toronto City Hall and the Ontario government are out of touch with their day-to-day concerns.

Liberal Wayne Easter from P.E.I. said he happily changed his mind and will now vote to keep the registry. In fact, he never wanted to scrap the registry in the first place, and only voted to do so to, "provoke debate" about the needs of rural Canadians.

I guess that's why the Liberal Party has been supporting all those Conservative budgets, huh.

To provoke debate?

Seriously?

Unfortunately, Wayne... the debate isn't gonna be about rural values... it'll be about what a lying, condescending wiener you are.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

I saw the Attorney General for Ontario, Chris Bentley, defending the Gun Registry on the Mother Corpse yesterday.

His compelling arguments: the Police Chiefs say it is good so it must be good and it protects women and children. How or why he clearly didn't know.

-- COVENTRY -- Police in England have been dispatched to a Coventry woman's home after a security camera recorded her throwing a cat into a trash bin. Police are concerned for the woman's safety and posted two officers at her house. They also defended the fact she hasn't been arrested.

Of course... things are a little different here in fuzzy-bunny Canuckistan.

-- ROSE VALLEY -- A justice worker from his reserve says the community is standing behind Christopher Pauchay, the father of two toddlers found frozen to death on the Yellow Quill First Nation in January.

23 August 2010

Delegates at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police conference have voted resoundingly to support the long-gun registry, and now plan to lobby to save it from being scrapped.

Bill Blair, Toronto's police chief and the association's president, said Monday police now hope to wage a public relations campaign in the coming weeks to boost public support for the registry.

Amazingly, this item, which also made the CTV National News tonight... presented the flip side of the usual propaganda piece...

Not all frontline officers agree with the registry. Randy Kuntz, an Edmonton police officer for 22 years, surveyed 2,600 officers on the issue, and found about 2,400 want to scrap the registry.

"With the boots-meets-the-pavement type of policeman who's going to be dealing with the public every day, overwhelmingly there's no support for this registry," he told CTV's Kevin Armstrong in Edmonton. "It hasn't saved anybody."

I'll tell ya... I just about fell outta my chair.

My guess is... whoever snuck in the second part of this story is gonna be lookin' for a new job.

Additionally, while technology plays a major role in the DEA’s efforts, much of its success is increasingly dependent upon rapid and meticulous understanding of foreign languages used in conversations by speakers of languages other than English.

Now, seven months later, Pakistani officials are telling a very different story. They say they set out to capture Mr. Baradar, and used the C.I.A. to help them do it, because they wanted to shut down secret peace talks that Mr. Baradar had been conducting with the Afghan government that excluded Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime backer.

In the weeks after Mr. Baradar’s capture, Pakistani security officials detained as many as 23 Taliban leaders, many of whom had been enjoying the protection of the Pakistani government for years. The talks came to an end.

“We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us,” said a Pakistani security official, who, like numerous people interviewed about the operation, spoke anonymously because of the delicacy of relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.

“We protect the Taliban. They are dependent on us. We are not going to allow them to make a deal with Karzai and the Indians.”

As for Mr. Baradar, he is now living comfortably in a safe house of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Pakistani official said. “He’s relaxing,” the official said.

Many of the other Taliban leaders, after receiving lectures against freelancing peace deals, have been released to fight again.

So, to recap... the Pakistani government is actively supporting the Taliban... the same folks who are blowing up Canadian troops. They are receiving billions of dollars in financial aid from the U.S. government... and now we should pony up billions more?

The persistence of corruption in grantee nations has drawn concern to a program generally hailed as innovative, which has forged a total of $7.2 billion in multiyear aid agreements with MCC in 20 countries.

Yet MCC has not suspended or terminated aid to any country solely because of corruption issues.

22 August 2010

A 23-year-old Brampton man was gunned down in his home late Saturday. And while few details were immediately released, neighbours suspect the slaying was drug-related.

Neighbours said they believed McLean lived in the modest house with his mother, grandmother and sister. “He was always outside at the front of the house,” said one woman, who lives nearby and was afraid to give her name.

The neighbour claims a steady stream of high-end vehicles stopped by at all hours of the day and night.

And back in the center of the universe...

Bullets were flying on Danforth Ave. early Sunday as a robbery ended with one man suffering a minor wound to the leg.

-- TORONTO -- “This is not the same country that I've known. We are seeing changes that are so deeply dangerous and they are fundamental to the very fabric of our democracy, and we must not let that happen,” May said.

Toronto Police suspect the city’s latest gunshot victim, a 15-year-old boy, was the intended target of a weekend shooting at a townhouse complex in the High Park area.

I dunno, Officer... have we ruled out some ol' farmer trying to keep coyotes off his sheep?

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

A townhouse complex called Swansea Mews, in other words Toronto Housing. Maybe Mayor Dave should be a little more selective in tenant choice or send Chief Bill to Swansea instead of Edmonton to defend the Long Gun Registry.

I'm in agreement, Junior was shot at by an irate farmer. Who else in Toronto has guns?

...the ship didn’t materialize out of the goodness of someone’s heart. It was paid for, and whoever forked over the money clearly expects a hefty return. Happily admitting the exploited folks on board would clearly seem to be encouraging that trade.

Is it also possible that, among the 500, a few hardened Tiger sympathizers are hiding, hoping to implant themselves in Canada’s Tamil community so they can continue to promote hatred and division?

20 August 2010

What is more likely, then, is that one day next spring, the Israeli national-security adviser, Uzi Arad, and the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, will simultaneously telephone their counterparts at the White House and the Pentagon, to inform them that their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has just ordered roughly one hundred F-15Es, F-16Is, F-16Cs, and other aircraft of the Israeli air force to fly east toward Iran.

They vote to convict... we could drop a live grenade down Omar Khadr's skivvies...

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man's spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, local newspapers reported on Thursday.

Those guys at Gitmo... I'm guessing half of them will have to be pushed out the door.

19 August 2010

...the next time you're sitting waiting for seven hours in your local hospital emergency room...The thing I don't get... I heard these destitute folks paid $50,000 apiece to get on that boat.

So why exactly is all this coming out of my taxes?

It would end up costing taxpayers more than $300,000 a month in welfare payments if all 492 Tamil migrants who landed in British Columbia last week settled in Ontario.

In addition to welfare, Tamil refugee claimants will be able to apply for federal benefits that include a Universal Child Care Benefit of $100 a month for each child under 6, according to the federal government. They are also eligible for a federal Child Tax Benefit and the National Child Benefit Supplement so a couple with one child can get $327.66 per month, on top of $1,058 they receive under Ontario’s welfare system.

It will also cost about $22 million for Ontario Legal Aid Plan lawyers to help the migrants with their cases.

A woman charged with attempting to murder her 19-year-old daughter has been released under conditions. The 38-year-old was accused by police in June of a so-called honour crime when her daughter arrived home late one night.

The Afghan-born Kaleki is charged with attempted murder, assault with a weapon and aggravated assault.

Three cheers for uber-enlightened Canuckistan... where your first whack at homicide gets treated like vandalism.

You think I'm joking? Think again...

Justice Sal LoVecchio gave Magomadova a suspended sentence Thursday with three years of probation, for killing Aminat, 14, on Feb. 26, 2007.

In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith. As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood.

It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason.

Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

Seriously... kites... that's where the cultural battlelines are being drawn?

-- TORONTO -- The city has summarily banned all kites from Milliken Park, a 32-hectare green space and unofficial home of a game that sees skilled kite-masters manoeuvre their flying contraptions to slice their opponents' strings.

Every weekend, dozens of mostly Afghan-Canadian families flood the park to barbecue, picnic and watch the thrust and parry of the kites, a sight that reminds them of home.

"Sources tell CBS 2’s Kramer that Gov. Paterson is concerned that Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a staunch supporter of putting the mosque at ground zero, and President Barack Obama, might be advising mosque leadersto dig in their heels and insist on the present location."

17 August 2010

The second largest oil-exporting nation in OPEC is so technologically challenged, it has to import fully one third of its domestic gasoline supplies...

"It seems that people are panicking, and also despite the fact that the government tries to reassure them, the reality is that access to petroleum is not the same as before."

And President McDreamy's not worried about them fooling around with splitting the atom?

"More importantly, by means of this action, Tehran is moving its conflict with the international community into high gear, and [in this case] some may consider the military option to be the best solution."

"Delaying recourse to this option may lead to a point where it is impossible to implement it – if Tehran manages to produce a nuclear bomb of its own."

...there's a reason it's called "prison"... and not "circle of friends"...Of course... let's not forget... this is Canada...

"A man serving a life sentence for raping, killing and torchinga 15-year-old Ontario girl while he was on mandatory supervision for one of Manitoba's most shocking sex crimes has won damages from the Canadian government after a prison official laughed at him for cutting his thumb."

16 August 2010

"How else can you explain why a small Greek Orthodox church congregation in the same neighborhood--which existed prior to 9.11 -- still doesn't have clearance or permission to reestablish it's presence in lower Manhattan?"

-- KABUL -- The Taliban waging a vicious insurgency in Afghanistan have signalled a willingness to cooperate with international forces, the United Nations and rights groups to investigate civilian deaths.

A committee "should be formed to assess the very issue and conduct investigations into the civilian casualties across the country", the Taliban said in a statement late Sunday.

Uh... yoohoo, guys... over here...

-- KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban militants stoned a young couple to death for adultery after they ran away from their families in northern Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

“What people don’t understand is that it’s impossible for anyone with a questionable background to get into Canada. If they are not genuine refugees, they will go back. But we have to give them a chance.” -- Haydat Nazami --

"They will go back?"... that's certainly not what the historical record reflects. Maybe ol' Haydat should take a little drive down to Brantford, Ontario...

James Bissett, former head of the Canadian Immigration Service, referred to the Mohammad case as "atrocious … a powerful example of the fact that we've completely lost control of who can enter Canada."

In fact, Mohammad is just one of several alien terrorists the Canadian legal system renders un-deportable. It's a devastating indication of how the country does not yet take the terrorist menace seriously.

15 August 2010

Gareth Kirkby, former editor of Capital Xtra!, Ottawa's gay and lesbian weekly magazine, said a much more progressive and rational strategy would be one of harm reduction and education, rather than rounding people up like criminals.

"There's a long and, I would say honourable tradition of outdoor sex in the Ottawa area, as there is everywhere in the world. Men who have sex with men cruise in parks, they do that in repressed societies and they do it in more liberated societies like ours."

Well, it's true... we already set aside special fenced-in areas where your dog can take a crap.

Ottawa is vowing to curb illegal immigration by stopping asylum seekers before they set sail for Canada, as border officials in B.C. scramble to process hundreds of migrants who arrived aboard the MV Sun Sea.

Later Saturday night, police responded to a call for the sound of gunshots on Bleecker St., southeast of Bloor St. E. and Sherbourne St., and found a man suffering from life-threatening gunshot wounds.

That victim, believed to be in his late 20s, was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

No arrests were made in either shooting, the city's 34th and 35th murders of the year.